Joaquín Niemann fought to the end and came close to the top 3 in his farewell at LIV Golf Chicago. The Chilean golfer concluded his participation in the competition in fourth place, along with the Spaniard Sergio García, after finishing the last round with a card of -4, which left his accumulated score at -8. The champion was Australian Cameron Smith, who closed with -13, five strokes ahead of the national.

The talagantino came from a positive Saturday, in which he managed to close with a total score of -4, after signing a -3, and enter the top ten of the competition. He finished the second day in ninth place, six strokes behind Smith, who came out to face Sunday at the top of the standings and with the first chance to retain the crown.

The difference with the top of the table was not minor and the fight for the title seemed remote, in a competition where it went from less to more, after concluding Friday with -1. However, Joaco released his best version. His putting work on the first nine holes on Saturday was impeccable. A boost of confidence and a sign that when the Chilean is doing well, it is very difficult to stop him.

His performance was even from the start. Exceptional. He started the course from the third hole and immediately showed that he was still alive. That beyond obtaining the trophy or not, his intention was to place himself as high as possible. And a good start allowed him to dream. An early birdie, only to score two more at flags seven and nine, showed that Niemann was absolutely motivated and focused at full throttle.

As happened on Saturday, Joaco suffered on hole 10. Unfortunately, by the way, because at that time he was only three shots off the lead. At flag 11 he stumbled into a double bogey that seemed to tarnish all the good he had done so far. But he quickly recovered, hitting two consecutive under-par shots on the 12th and 13th holes.

Niemann faced his final holes of the round with the possibility of continuing to close his gap with his opponents at the top. And he got it on the second hole, which was his last of the day. There he made another birdie which left him only one place in the top 3 of the Saudi competition and, despite the fact that the double bogey had soiled his card, the Chilean can rest easy, because at no time did he didn’t lose focus or give up.

His opaque presentation on the first day of the tournament ended up costing him dearly at the close. In any case, Joaco has shown that he is one of the best and that he is getting used to fighting in the top places. . In his first tour appearance, he lost the Boston Invitational title in a tiebreaker to Dustin Johnson, the champion, and Arniban Lahiri, who finished second with the national. Little by little, the man from Talagan is establishing himself in the league for which he changed the PGA Tour and it would not be surprising to see him win a crown in the coming days. It seems to be only a matter of time.

Now the national must turn the page and start thinking about the LIV Golf Invitational taking place in Bangkok, Thailand from October 7-9.